DawnPiece4

Dawn Pickens

**How I Came to Be a Literate Being** Three of my favorite places in the world are book stores, office supply stores and fabric shops. I can spend hours lost in each. Content to suffer the possibilities within, and flustered by the choices; just one book, one pen, one packet of paper, or small piece of fabric pattern to make my own. Even on vacation or my day off I am willing to spend hours driving just to visit a new shop. Yeah, I’m a geek of sorts. From as far back as I can remember I have been surrounded by books and people who love to read. The smell of a new book and knowing that I am the first person to break the binding are inexplicable sensations. What discoveries wait inside these pages? I remember my grandma taking me to the library each summer, and then on the really good days to a used book store to buy a book I could keep. I remember the book store on the campus of WSU. That was amazing. Stacks and stacks of books. Huge books! And all the same book stacked up taller than me. I remember the silence in these stores, almost reverence. What are the possibilities? I get turned on by office supplies, for pretty much the same reason I love books. I can’t get over the possibilities that are presented in a new box of crayons, a brand new notebook, or the unopened fine point pen. The potential is endless. You have to understand that I come from a family of professional “administrative assistants”, secretaries; you know, those ladies from the olden days when the main tool of the trade was a good pen and notepad. The need for a good writing tool is in my blood. The fabric shop, unlike the book store and office supply store, has been an acquired taste. I remember my grandma using scraps from the clothes she made for me to make doll dresses and blankets for the Salvation Army’s Christmas drive. Every little scrap had to be used, nothing thrown away. I remember going to “Cloth World” with my mom. I didn’t understand the big bolts and mass quantities. They were a little scary. With Grandma I had always dealt with the tiny pieces. As I’ve grown I have come to appreciate the choices offered at the specialty shops that replaced the mega mart of “Cloth World”. I thrill at picking bolts and notions and matching them time and again. Considering each as I think of the person I will make the quilt for. I take the giant pieces and cut them apart to make a more perfect whole, designed for one special person. Fabric stores have become the temple of creativity, wherein we imagine the potential of the pattern, colors, and texture as it will look and feel in the finished item of clothing or a quilt. Again I wonder at the possibility of the fabric. A book is the beginning of an adventure that doesn’t have to end. The feel of a fine pen on quality paper can pull words of life to be shared. Under a quilt, sewn with love, a child can safely dream of a world that could be. My favorite places offer a blank canvas, a starting place for adventure and possibility. I have the women of my youth to thank. They have gifted me with eyes that see the possibility and potential. I can only hope I have been able to do the same with my children.

Rachel--Oh I completely feel you when breaking the binding on that new book! One suggestion: in the second to last sentence of the fifth paragraph, you need to have "pattern, colors, and texture" I think. Also, in the last paragraph, it is a little awkward. Maybe say, "My favorite places offer a blank canvas." This is absolutely wonderful!

Dawn--Wow! A few changes have made this so much better. I love the reverent silences in the bookstores and the "temple of creativity" in the fabric stores. Great job of tying these separate ideas together at the end.--Nancy

Dawn- I really enjoyed reading this, and I think it is GrEaT writing! I grew up with a mom that sews and I LOVED getting to sew different projects growing up. I especially liked "cut them apart to make a more perfect whole." Brett

Meg - I agree with Brett on my favorite phrase, "cut them apart to make a more perfect whole." It drips with quiltiness, or the basic concept of quilting.